McCain: A Question of Temperament
By Michael Leahy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 20, 2008; Page A01

John McCain cupped a fist and began pumping it, up and down, along the
side of his body. It was a gesture familiar to a participant in the
closed-door meeting of the Senate committee who hoped that it merely
signaled, as it sometimes had in the past, McCain's mounting
frustration with one of his colleagues.

But when McCain leaned toward Charles E. Grassley and slowly said, "My
friend . . ." it seemed clear that ugliness was looming: While the
plural "my friends" was usually a warm salutation from McCain, "my
friend" was often a prelude to his most caustic attacks. Grassley, an
Iowa Republican with a reputation as an unwavering legislator, calmly
held his ground. McCain became angrier, his fist pumping even faster.

AMD probed over Iran supercomputer build
First super guns now super computers

CHIPMAKER AMD is red-faced after a bunch of Iranian boffins smuggled 216
Opteron chips into the country and built themselves a supercomputer.
Iran has loads of trade embargoes against it as part of a punishment for not
liking America much. One of the embargos forbids the import of IT gear so
that the Iranians cannot get their paws on a supercomputer.

Scientists at the Iranian High Performance Computing Research Center at the
country's Amirkabir University of Technology have said that they have built
a supercomputer using 216 AMD Opterons in a Linux cluster. They think that
it can manage 860 giga-flops.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/opinion/21krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Krugman gives three reasons for the commodity price explosiong, and
cites two as being likely. I suspect that since at least some of it
is speculator-driven, that all three are in play]

Running Out of Planet to Exploit

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 21, 2008

Nine years ago The Economist ran a big story on oil, which was then
selling for $10 a barrel. The magazine warned that this might not
last. Instead, it suggested, oil might well fall to $5 a barrel.

In any case, The Economist asserted, the world faced “the prospect of
cheap, plentiful oil for the foreseeable future.”

Last week, oil hit $117.

It’s not just oil that has defied the complacency of a few years back.
Food prices have also soared, as have the prices of basic metals. And
the global surge in commodity prices is reviving a question we haven’t
heard much since the 1970s: Will limited supplies of natural resources
pose an obstacle to future world economic growth?

CV has retired and lives in a resort in Mexico.

KFC Kilgore once made good on one of his threats.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/19/AR2008041902224_pf...

McCain: A Question of Temperament

By Michael Leahy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 20, 2008; A01

John McCain cupped a fist and began pumping it, up and down, along the
side of his body. It was a gesture familiar to a participant in the
closed-door meeting of the Senate committee who hoped that it merely
signaled, as it sometimes had in the past, McCain's mounting
frustration with one of his colleagues.

But when McCain leaned toward Charles E. Grassley and slowly said, "My
friend . . ." it seemed clear that ugliness was looming: While the
plural "my friends" was usually a warm salutation from McCain, "my
friend" was often a prelude to his most caustic attacks. Grassley, an
Iowa Republican with a reputation as an unwavering legislator, calmly
held his ground. McCain became angrier, his fist pumping even faster.

Sony Shows Razor-thin Prototype OLED Screen
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service Sun Apr 20, 8:50 PM ET

Sony has managed to make an OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen
that's just one-fifth of a millimeter thick. The prototype screen was on
show at last week's Display 2008 exhibition in Tokyo and ranks as the
thinnest yet developed.

...

Where is AmeriKKKa in this innovation?

Nowhere.

AmeriKKKa the Nothing Nation.

Crashed 5 planes and then got himself captured. Only did 20 hours of actual
combat flying.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080421/ap_on_bi_ge/hybrids_growth;_ylt=AvofYDKqFTCq...

AmeriKKKa is too incompetent and inept to build them so Japan, Korea, China,
India and Europe will.

Meanwhile AmeriKKKan auto-manufacturers continue to go bankrupt.

Good.

Paraguay leftist ex-bishop ends ruling party's 61-year reign
by Laurence Thomann 1 hour, 55 minutes ago

ASUNCION (AFP) - Leftist former bishop Fernando Lugo won a historic
presidential election in Paraguay on Sunday as he defeated ruling party
candidate Blanca Ovelar to end 61 years of Colorado Party domination.

Lugo was declared the winner by the Electoral Tribunal with 41 percent of
the vote compared to 31 percent for Ovelar, crushing her dream of becoming
the South American country's first woman president.
"Today we can dream of a different country," Lugo, 56, told reporters.
"Paraguay will simply not be remembered for its corruption and poverty, but
for its honesty."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080421/ts_afp/paraguayvote_080421021917

Drivers paying record pump prices
By Chelsea Emery Sun Apr 20, 7:08 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. drivers are paying record prices to fill their gas
tanks and they could see prices surge as much as 30 cents more per gallon
over the next few weeks, according to an industry analyst.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080420/bs_nm/energy_gasoline_retail_dc